I don’t blame you if that was your reaction to Sharks’ scouting director Tim Burke’s announcement of San Jose’s reach at 19th overall. With consensus highly rated prospects like Kristian Vesalainen, Kailer Yamomoto, and Eeli Tolvanen among others still waiting to hear their names, San Jose went off the board with the 19 year old from Oxford, Michigan. Joshua Norris was the third American off the board, after Casey Mittelstadt went to Buffalo at 8 and Cal Foote (he was born in Colorado, he counts as ours) was plucked by Tampa Bay at 14, in a starting round full of Finnish (sorry), seeing six Finns picked in the first 31, more than any other country save Canada.
Joshua Norris was a low risk pick, and that’s okay
